Oscar Wilde in Singapore: Ambivalence, Enforcement, and the Criminalization of Homosexuality

Abstract

The city state of Singapore, which recently celebrated 50 years of independence, still curiously retains a nineteenth century colonial penal code that criminalizes homosexuality. While state censorship discourages its citizens from engaging in public discourse that explores the implications of this penal code, colloquially known as 377A, discussions on the topic are still visible. High profile attempts to repeal the law through challenging the Singapore Constitution are reported in mainstream media outlets, and the artistic community also supports the repeal of the penal code. One of the most powerful instances of this was W!ld Rice's 2013 all-male production of Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest followed by Moisés Kaufman's Gross Indecency: The Three Trials of Oscar Wilde (the former played to international acclaim in Macau in 2014 and Brisbane in September 2015). This essay examines the relationship between art and state policy in Singapore by considering how artistic expressions that address social and cultural anxieties contribute to rather than subvert conversations about social policy-making. In this case, the seemingly comical Wilde plays produced an especially serious and nuanced analysis of the off-stage consensus problems in Singapore, among the LGBT community, heterosexual citizens, and the government. The plays effectively expose and articulate the deeply ambivalent sentiments that have come to characterize the 377A debate.

Personal Narratives of Illness: Redressing Madness in the Singaporean Fiction of Amanda Lee Koe

“…. ] do not have to go underground" (Lee 2007), which reflect the deeply ambivalent sentiments characterizing 377A (Wong 2016), the lack of a repeal remains a "constitutional problem" (Woon 2014). Meanwhile, at the grass-roots level, there have been great strides to gain inclusivity for homosexual citizens.…”

Teaching Queer Theory beyond the Western Classroom

“…One of the strongest scholarly examples of the kind of intellectual insights that can be gained from such a cross-cultural approach is found in Jane Yean Chui Wong's (2016) discussion of the 2013 staging of an all-male production of Wilde's Importance of Being Earnest (1895) by Singapore's W!ld Rice theater company. She describes how the local context of intense public debates surrounding the potential repeal of 377A brought to light for the Singaporean audience aspects of the original work that have gone underexamined by Western readers.…”

State, society, and sexuality: an inquiry on the lived experiences of lesbians and gay men in contemporary Singapore

“…In Singapore, scholars have demonstrated the pervasiveness of state policies in shaping and reinforcing the conventional norm of a heterosexual nuclear family (Chua, 2014, Leong, 2008Teo, 2011). These studies reveal how state policies and public housing are used to promote the framework of a stable family unit (Chen, 2013;Jung, 2021;Oswin, 2012;Purcell, 1999;Teo, 2011) where heterosexual families are held up as the basic unit in Singapore society (Bin Ibrahim & Barlas, 2021;Oswin, 2010;Tan, 2016;Teo, 2011;Wong, 2016). Consequently, LGBTQ+ individuals are put in a challenging position as heteronormative processes profoundly impact their lives in Singapore.…”

“…Amidst these shifts, scholars highlight the persistent legal and social challenges entrenched within the traditional heteronormative framework. State censorship has deterred Singaporeans from discussing the implications of the 377A penal code, a colonial-era law that criminalizes homosexual activity (Wong, 2016). Furthermore, actions bringing about dissent and mobilization in society (Chang, 2015;Chua, 2012Chua, , 2014 are restricted and prohibited.…”